Word for the Day Jan 23

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Christian Education Forum
Diocese of North America and Europe of
the Mar Thoma church

Word for the Day - Jan 23

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Transforming a crisis to blessing
Daniel 2:24-30

“As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.” (Daniel 2: 30)
Daniel and his friends were going through a crisis in Babylon and they were facing death by the decree of the king. The king had a dream and he wanted the wise men of the land to tell him about the dream and to interpret the dream.
God reveals Daniel both dream and its interpretation: All the wise men of the land failed to do that and king ordered to execute them. So the officials and the wise men wanted to include Daniel and his friends in this group. We see here the God given wisdom and tact of Daniel as he went im-mediately to Arioch, the king’s official who was appointed to execute the killing of wise men of the land, and told him not to destroy the "wise men" because God had revealed to him both the dream and its interpretation. Daniel never heard the Sermon on the Mount, but he knew how to treat his enemies and was willing to rescue the advisers. Since Arioch was in charge of executions, he could stop the process and save the lives of all the king's counsellors in the city of Babylon.
God given wisdom to transform crisis into blessing: Daniel and his friends were at the verge of losing their lives but they depended on God and used their God given wisdom to transform this crisis to a blessing not only to them but also to the people who went through the same crisis. Daniel could have responded to his enemies the same way that they responded to Daniel. But he used this crisis to love them and to save the lives of many people in the land. Many of us struggle and fall when we go through crisis in life. We normally want to take revenge and to retaliate those who are responsible for this crisis. Daniel shows us a model to turn our crisis to a blessing. And through this act the whole country came to know about the living God and to believe Him. Our lives in this world are not without crisis and we are called to transform the crises to blessings. When Daniel could that he became a blessing to many others and he brought glory and honour to God.

Prayer: God of transformation, help us to transform our crises to a blessing to ourselves and a blessings to people around us. Amen.

Rev. V. M. Mathew, NY.

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